Saturday, September 15, 2007

Yes, its time for the next movement after this failed cause. Please join me in trying to prevent the calamity that is about to befall Indian Cricket by way of Sachin Tendulkar's appointment as India's Test captain. The reasons are obvious. The next step for Tendulkar is retirement not captaincy!

Agreed, Tendulkar is again at his best one day form. It is common knowledge that if this swine had not prevented Tendulkar from opening the innings during the world cup, we might have stayed a little longer in the Caribbean. But he almost certainly doesn't deserve a place in the test side.

Remember his 242 crawl in Australia which Shane Warne (I'm certain) recently ridiculed by calling it a great innings?! Or the shameless cave-in he authored with Dravid in South Africa? In anycase how does a person who finds it too exhausting to play ODIs gonna captain in Test matches?

Tendulkar's sychopants Sharad Pawar (who recently screwed India's farmers with $390 Wheat imports) and Vengsarkar (who's tongue is as loose as Kiran More's) are all set to lick his boots. Sachin, who invariably places himself above the team (remember he stood up to Chappell only when demoted to No.4) is likely to accept the offer that'll make his Test place more secure. Please stop this calamity!

Kudos to Rahul Dravid. Because the only good thing he has done as captain was resigning! Wait, his batting and persona are outstanding. There'll hardly be a player like him ever. But he should never have been made captain and its no surprise that he failed. But his is a dignified exit.

Batting mainstays cannot and should not be made captains. Sachin showed it then, Dravid proved it now. Ganguly could succeed because he was not the lynchpin of Indian batting. He could afford to hit and miss. No point bringing Ponting into the argument. Captaining Australia is perhaps the easiest job in Cricket.

Then who's next? Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the obvious choice. Yuvraj Singh is now our batting mainstay and should not be disturbed. In anycase Dhoni seems to have a better temperament than Yuvraj. And Dhoni despite some commendable rear-guard efforts is at best an exciting No.6 batsman. He probably is tailor-made for captaincy.

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

242 crawl by Sachin !!! Alright, he scored 241 (436) at a strike rate of 55.27. Up the order, Sehwag scored the fastest at a mind-boggling rate of 63 for his 72 runs. After India were well past 500, Parthiv Patel threw his bat at a strike rate of 124. Now, by any standards of test-cricket batting that is not a crawl by Sachin. India scored 705 at more than 3.5 runs per over that match and had a decent shot at winning the match needing to bowl out Oz within 443 runs with a day to spare (94 overs) !!! So, the 241 was not a significant contribution, you tell me.If you compare it to the standards he set before, sure yes, it is a crawl. But here is a man trying to come to terms with significant injury and age and the least we could do is give him some time. Maybe he shud retire now but if his performance in England in the tests and one-dayers is anything to go byhe has some cricket left in him and we must use him sparingly for the next 1-2 years in tests atleast before we get enough replacement. (We should play yuvraj consistently in tests). Sachin is still our best test cricketer and with the exception of VVS (only against Oz) and Dravid can better left-handed than the other excuses of batsmen we have in the team.

Can you please provide links where you got information towards this judgement. BTW, I am not a big fan of making Tendulkar captain.

Split captaincy is not exactly non-sense. Oz tried it with Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh if I am right. Further, how many test-playing batsman in India today are good for ODIs or 20-20. We really seem to be fielding two different teams.India is lagging big time as far as new batsmen for tests are concerned and we don't seem to be doing anything about it. Like I said, we should not make a Srinath out of yuvraj. Play him in tests. He is good.

In australia they have had a successor ready in the last few instances. Hence they help the new captain to feel at home by starting of with the one dayers.

That is not the case here. Sachin has been India's worst captain in well over 2 decades if not the worst ever! His test place itself is a freebie offered in the name of seniority. Now appointing him as captain will be in bad taste.

The 5 oldies in the team should be left to concentrate on their game and plan swansongs at a time of their choosing. No more politics please!

Infact not only be Dhoni made captain in all forms but he should be given a term atleast till the end of the season next March.

I am unable to understand the propaganda for Dhoni. In ODIs, I totally agree, he is a hard-hitter and has wicket keeping for insurance if he fails with the bat.Yes, make him captain. Infact, that is what it looks like is going to happen. In tests, I doubt he is better than Karthik and Karthik has the edge over him in keeping too I hear, from domestic coaches. Further, Karthik I believe can be groomed into an opener (ok he must be tested in Oz land but who isn't vulnerable). No, I am not for playing Karthik as just a regular batsman. Dhoni is a find but is surely not in the league of Gilchrist or even Sangakkara for that matter. I would have been happy really if Dravid had continued a little longer as captain in tests till somebody can really take over the mantle. I had hoped that could have been Sehwag (monumental waste of his talent) or Yuvraj (He has some personality issues I hear). God, I was so wrong.

Cmon, where is the hype in saying that Karthik might be the better prospect in tests ? BTW, Karthik has played 16 tests and kept in 11 tests against Dhoni's 20/20 tests. Karthik is not much younger on test exposure.Ofcourse, I am not recommending Karthik for captaincy !!!, please.

Anyhow, regarding the case in point, I think Dravid was probably the WORST captain India ever had. I am not being biased here but time and again he proved that he has absolutely no abilities as a captain. His atrocious decisions in many matches have laid bare his minimal understanding of how a captain should behave himself and lead his team.

On the same side of the coin, Ganguly was the best captain India ever had. I wouldn't care a shit about how his attitude was in the dressing room as long as he got results on the field. When he was around, India would be fighting even when it wasn't winning. With Dravid, it was the exact opposite. I wouldn't be surprised if most of Ganguly's opposition captains would rate him amongst the best captains in the world.

I am more than fed up with his talk that he should retire. I assume Jayasuriya who is a lot older than Sachin should be happily considering a commentator's job by now going by that standard. So should Gilchrist, Ponting, Hayden etc. The fact though is that all these players are at the top of their game and are mauling oppositions all over the world and they are even playing the 20-20! We seriously need to see less of the media trying to project Sachin as being over the hill. I hate it when he plays slow and crawls along but I seriously think he is good enough to go to the next world cup if his confidence is up. The media and the supporters should hence shut up about his retirement and let him decide about that himself.

Tendulkar as captain is a definite no-no for me too though I totally resent the statement - "if not the worst ever!". That distinction can no way be taken away from Dravid.

My vote for captain - Dhoni/Sehwag. I think Sehwag should ALWAYS be in the team. He is currently perhaps India's most powerful match winner. His form is dodgy but there is no denying the fact that if he scores, India wins - as simple as that. Even if he succeeds in only 50% of his innings, that's good enough because that would mean India will win most of those matches. The others need to contribute in the other matches.

Oh, and I could really really do with some more people thinking Tendulkar can play onto the next world cup. I am sure he would too. If Sanath Jayasuriya and the rest I mentioned before can do it, I am dead sure Sachin can too if he has the confidence.

Oh and by the way (LOL, this is funny), how does Ganguly deserve to be called "not the lynchpin of Indian batting" since he is probably the greatest ODI cricketer to have ever walked the planet after Tendulkar?